Chris Kelly

Developing business can be a time consuming process and the selling cycle can be longer and less productive if the conditions aren’t favourable. 

There is no one-size-fits-all sales coaching model. There are only approaches that have been shown to be successful in particular situations. As the coach, you must identify each individual salesperson’s personal “success code” – and use that code to unlock the salesperson’s potential for success. Here are five tips that have been proven to help sales leaders unlock that code.

Deal slippage is the frustration of every sales team – when a promising opportunity that seemed ready to close gets pushed further into the future on the sales calendar. It's a phenomenon that doesn't necessarily signify a lost deal; the prospect might still be interested, or the sales representative might have been overly optimistic. We all need to be aware of effective strategies to prevent opportunities from endlessly sliding away in your sales pipeline, ensuring a more predictable and successful sales process.

IMPROVE YOUR SALES EFFECTIVENESS…BY AVOIDING REACHBACK AND AFTERBURN

One of the distinguishing characteristics of top performers in sales is the ability to avoid two common, self-imposed mental handicaps: reachback and afterburn.

Reachback is what happens when an impending event begins to have a negative influence
on our attitude and behavior. This is most dramatically seen in the salesperson whose whole outlook on life may be disturbed for hours or even days ahead of time at the very thought of going into a fearful situation, such as cold calling.

Make client satisfaction more than just a survey. Make it a meaningful, ongoing client-centric initiative that drives your successful delivery and account growth. After all, it’s really not about you; it’s about the client!

Prospecting is simply the act of finding prospects – those people who need your product or service – while they are hiding in a sea of suspects. You must keep your focus on the goal: finding prospects. You can’t let your attention become diverted by the many suspects you will encounter along the way. When you’re prospecting, you’re like the Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue team, looking for a small raft of shipwreck survivors in a vast ocean. The work may be long and tedious, but the goal is certainly worthwhile and rewarding.

One of David Sandler’s critical selling rules  “Don’t spill your candy in the lobby”  can sound a little confusing to someone who is unfamiliar with the Sandler Selling System® methodology. What does a spilled box of candy have to do with a sales call? Everything.

Have you been tempted to offer discounted prices or fees in an attempt to win the business? Have prospects asked for discounts, promising to give you the business if the discounts are granted?

What did you do?

If the sales leader has the discipline to keep the training topic-focused, all of this can be accomplished well within an hour training meeting. Some sales leaders attempt to run training in 30-minutes or less. Depending upon the topic, this can work, but too often, vital components are skipped, like failing to get salesperson Pain out on the table, or recapping with lessons learned at the end of the meeting.

You might be surprised that salespeople will tell you that the lessons learned portion is often their favorite. They learn from each other in that segment and also internally reinforce new beliefs and “light bulb” moments.

"The professional does what he did as a dummy...on purpose." - - David Sandler
Once upon a time, there was a young kid who graduated from high school, took a look
at the help wanted ads, went out on a couple of interviews, and, within just a few days, landed his very first job. He was hired as a salesperson by one of those big box stores.